"The whiz kids of Beijing" (San Jose Mercury News 2004-04-04)

Hi Beijing Penguins,

This article is from today's edition of the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon
Valley's newspaper-of-record:

--

Posted on Sun, Apr. 04, 2004

The whiz kids of Beijing

NEW GENERATION IS CASHING IN ON THE NET

By Daniel Sneider

BEIJING - Wang Yan's first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80, sits proudly on
display in his modern, glass-walled office high in an office tower
overlooking Beijing. The grandson of one of China's most famous physicists,
Wang grew up surrounded by computers and science. Today, he is CEO and
president of China's largest Internet portal, Sina.com.

Down one of Beijing's bustling boulevards, Charles Zhang holds court at a
rival Internet firm, Sohu.com. He talks in sound bites but boasts a physics
degree from MIT where he was an early convert to the promise of the
Internet.

These men represent a new generation of entrepreneurs in China. Many of them
are the children of the Communist Party elite who went abroad for advanced
education. They came home with an enthusiasm for the transformative power of
high technology. Their inspiration is more Bill Gates than Chairman Mao.

The Internet CEOs are eager to push the envelope when it comes to finding
new ways to expand their marketplace, from delivering text messages to
China's nearly 300 million cell phone users to offering online gaming to
eager Chinese youth. Their sites have become major media players, making
profits as their popularity soars.

When it comes to democracy, however, the entrepreneurs embrace the Chinese
leadership's vision of orderly change, of putting getting rich ahead of
political freedom. They count on the government's protection and have little
enthusiasm for challenging the government's control over the flow of
information.

Zhang talks breezily of creating a China where individual rights prevail.
``The Enlightenment that happened in the West over 500 years is being
compressed into 25 years here,'' he told me in his office.

But when it comes to making news decisions for Sohu.com, Zhang sees no need
to challenge the Communist Party. ``If we get rid of a strong hand, the
country will be in a mess. You need to do it gradually.''

Wang agrees. ``It is part of our responsibility,'' he says. ``We have to
understand what we can do and what we cannot do in this country.''

While their company stock trades on NASDAQ and they seek investors in
Silicon Valley, these are Chinese patriots who dream of competing in the
global market.

After attending university in China, Wang went to Paris to study law. But he
didn't give up his interest in computing. On the side, he commercialized the
first program to allow Chinese software to operate within Windows. Seeing
the Internet wave begin, he formed a group with his high school classmates
in 1995 to produce content for the Net. Three years later he merged with a
company set up by three Chinese Stanford grads to create Sina.com.

The first generation of entrepreneurs all studied overseas. But the second
and third generations won't have to go abroad, Wang says.

Even this pioneering generation rejects the idea that they are citizens of
the world. ``I am not really internationalized,'' says Wang. ``I am a
stranger to America.''

Wang, now 31, proclaims himself to be ``a Chinese culture guy.'' He believes
the way Chinese approach issues and solve problems is closer to Europe than
to the United States. ``Americans are usually straightforward. Chinese
people always try to manage problems by indirect ways. . . . In China we
cannot imagine achieving our goal immediately, even if we have the financial
support.''

Zhang wears his American education more easily on his sleeve and exudes the
air of a man who already survived China's own dot-com boom and bust.

But both Zhang and Wang are quick to come to the defense of the Chinese
government's measures to protect Chinese tech industry from competition.
They reassure me that China will remain far behind the United States when it
comes to fundamental innovation. ``Chinese won't catch up quickly,'' says
Sina's Wang.

Ultimately, their personal ambitions are tied intimately to those of their
nation. ``I am excited about China becoming an economic power in the
world,'' Zhang told me. ``I am sure there will be frictions. But things can
always be managed.''

DANIEL SNEIDER is foreign affairs columnist for the Mercury News. His column
appears on Sunday and Thursday. You can contact him at
[email protected]

``New Faces of Asia'' is an occasional series looking at the generation of
leaders at the forefront of change in Asia, men and women who are global in
their outlook but deeply rooted in their own nations.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/8352674.htm

Ends.

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